Is Love that great a piece for the Pacers? If George goes they'd be better of rebuilding I think. Having Love around means they'd still be competitive (but not a real threat - just in the middle going nowhere) in a lot of games and wouldn't be fully committed to the rebuild. Might need to be a third team involved to get a deal done.
Love is better than nothing, for sure. They'd probably be better off with good draft picks but who is going to give them? Cavaliers own no picks that they could trade until something crazy like 2022 and it's the same with Lakers, cannot trade their picks either. Portland were rumored to be interested with 2 or 3 of first round picks this year which doesn't look like a terrible deal now but I think even that will be off the table if George is committed to joining Lakers in 2018.
The best deal for them right now is probably getting Randle, Russell or Ingram from Lakers. Again, I am not sure Lakers will offer even that because they seem confident of landing George in 2018 free agency. It's better to support him with all 4 of their young talent than 3 of them. Fox or Ball, Russell, Ingram, George and Randle is a good core in 3-4 years.
I don't see a team in the top 10 of the draft willing to offer their draft pick to Indiana, not under these circumstances. If his 2018 free agency status was not so certain and there was a chance he'd resign with his new team, then fair enough, Boston would probably offer their pick and so could Phoenix, but it seems like it'll be almost impossible for the new team to get him to sign a deal beyond next season so it only makes sense to sign him if you want to compete NOW. The only team in the league who can compete with Paul George NOW are Cavaliers.
Including third team makes sense here, true. Maybe send Love back to Minnesota, or get him to move to Portland? Indiana would receive #7 and Dieng from Minnesota which is good, Minnesota would get Kevin Love back and Cleveland would get Paul George. Or Portland would send Crabbe, #15 and #26 to Indiana, Cleveland would still get Paul George but Kevin Love would go to Portland. Actually sending Love to another team, who would then offer picks and young players to Indiana makes sense. I'd be all for including Philadelphia in the conversation but they don't actually need Love, maybe Celtics would be tempted to go after Love but at a price that is lower than #3 overall pick?
Indiana receive: Marcus Smart, 2018 Lakers pick/2019 Kings pick
Celtics get: Kevin Love
Cleveland get: Paul George
Then Celtics can flip #3 pick plus Crowder for Butler, and snap Hayward in free agency. Thomas/Butler/Hayward/Love/Horford is ready to compete now.